[child-rights] Report from ABA Delegation to UN Special Session on Children

[***Originally posted on the "INTHUMRIGHTS@MAIL.ABANET.ORG" list, Mod.***]

On May 8-10, 2002, the American Bar Association (ABA) sent a delegation to
the UN Special Session on Children.  The following is a report submitted
by Jonathan Todres, Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on the Rights of the
Child and a member of the ABA Delegation to the Special Session.

Subcommittee on the Rights of the Child reports on the UN Special Session 
on Children

	On May 8-10, 2002, the United Nations General Assembly convened a
Special Session on Children to provide world leaders an opportunity to
assess the progress made in addressing issues affecting children since the
adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child ("CRC") in 1989
and the 1990 World Summit for Children, and to encourage governments to
reaffirm their commitment to improving the well-being of all children.  
The hope entering the Special Session was to have governments agree upon a
final outcome document entitled "A World Fit for Children"  setting forth
policies and goals for improving children's lives, with a particular focus
on four priorities areas:  promoting healthy lives; providing quality
education for all; protecting children against abuse, exploitation and
violence; and combating HIV/AIDS.

	Delegations from almost every country, including over 70 heads of
state, as well as representatives from the major international
organizations and over 800 NGOs, and hundreds of youth from around the
world came together at the Special Session.  After eighteen months of
negotiations on the outcome document leading up to the Special Session,
only a few issues remained open at the start of the Special Session, the
most contentious of which were the references in the outcome document to:  
(1) child rights and the CRC in particular, (2) abortion, sex education,
family planning and reproductive health, (3) prohibitions on the death
penalty in juvenile justice cases, and (4) specific financial commitments
by industrialized countries to developing countries.

	At the Special Session, the US Delegation, led by Tommy Thompson, 
Secretary of Health and Human Services, found itself at the center of a 
highly charged debate, as the Bush Administration opposed much of the 
language in the draft document on all four of these issues.  For most of 
the Special Session, participants expressed concern that these issues would 
prevent the outcome document from being completed.  A last minute deal, 
however, cleared the way for the UN General Assembly to adopt a final 
outcome document by the close of the Special Session.

	As to the treatment of the CRC in the outcome document, the US --
one of only two countries that has yet to ratify the CRC -- had objected
to language stating that the CRC was the authoritative expression of child
rights.  As a result of US objections, the final outcome document avoided
speaking about child rights in a number of contexts and described the CRC
only as "contain[ing] a comprehensive set of international legal standards
for the protection and well-being of children."

	Second, the US had expressed strong reservations to several
provisions related to reproductive health in an effort to ensure that any
references to reproductive healthcare could not be read to include
abortion or family planning programs that include abortion.  Instead, the
US pushed to include language on sexual abstinence.  In the end, the final
outcome document adopted a compromise position, remaining silent for the
most part and including neither the language that the US wanted nor the
language it sought to avoid.

	Third, the United States vehemently objected to including any
language in the outcome document that prohibited the use of the death
penalty in juvenile justice cases, a position that was met with strong
opposition from many countries, including the EU delegation.  As a result,
the final outcome document only included very soft language calling upon
states where the death penalty has not been abolished to comply with the
relevant provisions of the CRC (to which the US is not a party) and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which the US has
ratified but with reservations limiting its application on this issue).

	Finally, as to specifying levels of international development
assistance, in the end, the US and other industrialized countries resisted
including language committing themselves to reaching the aid target of
0.7% of gross domestic product, and such language ultimately was dropped.

	Although the final resolution of the above four issues left some
governments and NGOs disappointed as to what the outcome document did not
include, consensus was reached on a number of other issues affecting
children, and governments committed to a number of important policies and
aims, including:  reducing infant mortality by at least one-third over the
next decade and by two-thirds by 2015; increasing primary school
enrollment or participation in good quality, alternative primary education
programs to at least 90% by 2010; protecting children from all forms of
abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence; and reducing the prevalence of
HIV infection among young men and women aged 15 to 24 by 25% globally by
2010 and reducing by 50% the number of infants infected by HIV.

	These issues, and others, provide large areas of common ground in
which to work to improve the protection of children's rights and to ensure
their well-being.  Such common ground was evident among the sessions
involving NGOs from around the world which engaged in thoughtful dialogue
on pressing issues such as child protection, healthcare, education,
trafficking in children, violence against children, HIV/AIDS, and child
labor.  Among the most impressive aspects of the Special Session was the
participation of children.  The Youth Summit that immediately preceded the
Special Session and the continued involvement of youth during the Special
Session itself may well be the most enduring achievement of the Special
Session, as it created a blueprint for how to support children's forums
that enable children to make informed contributions to the discussions
that will chart their futures.

	The ABA sent a delegation to the Special Session, which met
privately with a representative of the official US delegation, J. Robert
Flores, Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP).  Despite differences of opinion between ABA and the
Bush Administration on certain issues related to child rights, the two
sides had a constructive meeting, exploring common ground on issues of
child protection, child health, restorative justice and alternatives to
incarceration.  The ABA delegation also met formally and informally with a
number of members of various other official delegations and as well as
with the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (which
oversees the implementation of the CRC by States Parties) in order to
explore ways to collaborate with other entities working on legal issues
affecting children.
	
	The end result is that the final outcome document of the Special
Session establishes a broad set of policies and goals that should help to
improve the lives and well-being of children and further strength
children's rights around the globe.  It is also evident from the Special
Session that the ABA can continue to play an important role in supporting
the work of the US government, the UN and other entities in achieving
these goals.

For more information, please contact Jonathan Todres, Vice-Chair of the
Subcommittee on the Rights of the Child., at <jonathan.todres@dpw.com>.  
The ABA Delegation to the Special Session included Patricia Ayayo, a
Ugandan lawyer visiting with the ABA Center on Children and the Law,
Professors Sherrie Russell-Brown and Barbara Bennett Woodhouse of
University of Florida College of Law, and Jonathan Todres.